Focus on Risk Services: State of the Internal Audit Profession

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The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Audit Executive Center
recently released the Spring 2013 Pulse of the Profession for North
America.

The results of the semiannual survey provide information about the
state of the internal audit profession, as well as emerging issues and
trends. The results are compiled from the responses of 554 Chief Audit
Executives and Managers.

April 25, 2013

The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Audit Executive Center recently released the Spring 2013 Pulse of the Profession for North America.

The results of the semiannual survey provide information about the state of the internal audit profession, as well as emerging issues and trends. The results are compiled from the responses of 554 Chief Audit Executives and Managers.

Respondent organizations included publicly traded companies (41%), privately owned businesses (24%) and government entities (23%). Various industries were represented by the survey with 45% of the organizations employing between one to five auditors.

Survey results provide insightful answers to the following questions:

To whom do most Chief Audit Executives (CAE) report?

What governance safeguards should be considered with a CAE rotation model?

How does our internal audit team identify and maintain coverage for evolving risks?

Is our mix of internal audits appropriate (especially as it relates to technology,

compliance, operational and overall risk management effectiveness)?

How do we measure our CAE “relationship acumen?" What are the six key traits for a CAE?

RubinBrown View Point
By virtue of working with many large and small internal audit departments, we have insight on the pulse of the local internal audit profession. We have noted that local internal audit departments:

Bring national insights to the local market through contributions on national IIA committees

Some of the additional issues we see our clients working through include:

How do we leverage our internal audit knowledge center in order to influence the evaluation of risk related to enterprise risk and other corporate compliance initiatives?

How can we identify and provide relevant audit coverage in areas with increasing importance and investments, such as intellectual property, sustainability, cloud services, mobile device management and cyber security?

How do we attract and retain internal auditors that can develop reasonable solutions and be valued leaders within our company?

The good news is that most internal audit departments feel they are getting the support from management to address these issues. Approximately 37% of the respondents to the IIA survey reported an increase in their budget. According to Paul Sobel, CAE of Georgia Pacific, budget increases will most likely be spent on enhanced training, salary and benefit increases, and more co-sourcing.

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